Chapter 9

Old street, in front of the Jiao family meat shop.

Meng Shenji, that salesman from the Heavenly Craft Sect, accepted the four hundred taels of silver banknotes handed over by Li Yu, smiled with satisfaction, then whistled and instructed the mechanical maid named Hongdou:

"Go, go pack your luggage yourself, and add one spirit energy stone."

After speaking, he looked again at the permanently closed meat shop and the courtyard behind it.

He nodded, took out paper and pen from his vest pocket, and recorded the address.

At this moment, the mechanical maid had already grabbed a tattered cloth bag, jumped down from the shop again, and stood beside Li Yu with extreme obedience.

Before Li Yu could open his mouth to ask about the details of operating the maid, Meng Shenji lost his patience and spoke first:

"The re-registration of ownership and operating instructions are all inside her bag."

"In three days, the first issue of the 'Ten Thousand Blessings Daily' will be delivered to your door."

Having said that, he didn't give Li Yu a chance to pester him, jumped onto his steam-powered shop, and sped off toward the next street.

Clearly, this fellow was somewhat annoyed because he hadn't squeezed out much profit, and his after-sales attitude was extremely poor.

Seeing this, Li Yu was not the least bit annoyed.

He felt that he had taken quite a bargain in this transaction, and his mood was at its peak.

He opened the courtyard gate, just about to call for his mechanical maid to follow.

Turning his head, he saw her mechanical head had already drooped, her fox-like eyes tightly shut—had she actually shut down?

Li Yu’s face couldn't help but darken, and he cursed the profiteer under his breath.

Was it calculated so precisely that it used up exactly the last bit of spirit energy?

At this point, it wasn't convenient for him to study how to change his maid's battery on the street, so he resigned himself to walking up, picking up the maid, and carrying her into the courtyard.

Once in his arms, she was unexpectedly light.

He could even hold her with one hand, tucking her under his arm to bring her inside.

Considering that the image was unsightly, Li Yu obediently held her properly, letting her delicate, pretty face—which was almost indistinguishable from a real young girl—rest on his shoulder.

This scene reminded Li Yu of some jokes from his past life, like "customers please pay attention to the packaging."

"But even in my past life, one couldn't find a doll this lifelike."

"And here, a Rank 7 powerhouse of the Heavenly Craft Sect can produce one, and it can be discarded at will after use. Since it can be sold by a salesman on every street corner, I fear such mechanical maids aren't considered very rare curiosities."

"Especially without that so-called [Heavenly Craft Secret Core], its utility must have been reduced by ninety-nine percent."

Muttering to himself, Li Yu carried the maid back to the main room.

He immediately reached out to take the cloth bag and opened it on the table.

Inside lay a small leather booklet, a set of maid clothing, and a strangely shaped crystal stone that shimmered with fiery rainbow light throughout, though its internal impurities were obvious.

The latter must be the so-called lowest-grade spirit energy stone.

Li Yu didn't mess around; he first picked up the leather booklet, on the cover of which was written: "Spirit Jade Doll Operation Manual: Hongdou Edition."

Below the title, a serial number was marked: The Thirty-Sixth Unit.

"So, this is still mass-produced?"

With a bit of doubt, Li Yu flipped open the manual.

Sure enough, the content on the first page answered him directly; the first thing he saw was the creator's self-introduction.

"I am Yun Dongjun, a disciple of the Heavenly Craft Sect. Having been promoted to [Doll Maker] for one month, my hands were itching, so I spent a year casting a full set of Spirit Jade Dolls, totaling thirty-six units, each with extraordinary spiritual effects. They are my proudest works."

"This doll is named Hongdou. Because it is the last one, I have done my utmost to load it with almost all functional spiritual effects..."

Seeing the beginning, Li Yu didn't show any joy.

When he bought it, Meng Shenji had already made it clear that almost all the useful things on this maid doll had been dismantled, leaving only an empty shell.

Fortunately, what he paid for was only the remaining part.

The manual was not thick, and he finished reading it quickly.

Although he had psychological expectations, a look of regret and melancholy still appeared on his face.

"Tsk tsk!"

"According to what Yun Dongjun said, Hongdou was not a mechanical maid at all in the beginning, but an extraordinary doll capable of fighting and assisting its master, and the most perfect of the thirty-six dolls."

"I don't know what happened later that led to almost all the useful functions being dismantled, especially that Heavenly Craft Secret Core which could bring extraordinary power and extremely high intelligence..."

While muttering, Li Yu reached out and took the spirit energy stone, which was full of impurities.

Then he paced to the back of Hongdou.

He first fumbled around the back of her head, and not knowing what switch he triggered, with a click, the skull opened, exposing the extremely complex devices inside, while the area where the brain core or similar things should have been placed was completely empty.

Only one or two traces like flesh stains remained, making it impossible to infer the appearance of the secret core from this.

The Heavenly Craft Secret Core is the core heritage of the Heavenly Craft Sect, and it is almost impossible for outsiders to obtain it.

Li Yu closed the skull and reached down further.

He pressed a spot near the waist, and accompanied by the release of old steam, a mechanism clearly intended for placing the spirit energy stone popped out.

"I don't need too much of a surprise!"

"If it can just help me clean up that damn storage room and those two corpses that have started to rot, it will be worth more than the price."

After muttering, Li Yu directly pried out the discarded gray-black spirit stone and inserted the new one.

In an instant, the mechanism retracted. A clicking sound immediately echoed from within, and streams of red steam with a faint fragrance sprayed out from the gaps all over her. Her head lifted abruptly, the ruby on her forehead flashed with fiery light again, and a pair of captivating fox-like eyes slowly opened.

And Li Yu, as soon as the changes began, had already stood in front of her.

As their gazes met, a voice that was full of mechanical sensation but also completely a young girl's tone sounded:

"Spirit Jade Number 36 Hongdou reboot successful. Human life form detected. Commencing ownership registration."

Following the mechanical voice, the gem between her brows immediately bloomed with a burst of red light, beginning to envelop Li Yu from head to toe.

Good heavens!

Is it really a scanning function?

Just as Li Yu felt the magic of it, the mechanical voice continued:

"New master is a human life form in the juvenile stage, male. Physical shell aura being recorded."

"Warning! Warning!"

"New master's physical shell suspected of being parasitized by a strange object... Initiating Spirit Physician function... Initialization failed!"

"Initiating cleansing function... Initialization failed!"

"Initiating freezing function... Initialization failed!"

"Initiating bounty function... Initialization failed!"

Each of these moving young girl's voice lines entered Li Yu's ears, but they made him feel very uncomfortable.

He now fully understood that the mechanical maid "Hongdou" before him was originally a truly rare and good item.

Now, it was all gone.

At this moment, he really wanted to step forward and cover the maid's mouth, telling her he knew, and to stop talking.

Seeming to sense the new master's regret, after a moment of stuttering, she gave up on the initialization.

A pair of fox-like eyes looked steadily at Li Yu, and she said gently:

"Ownership registration successful!"

"Master, please give your orders!"

After all the tossing and turning, Li Yu no longer had the luck of having picked up a bargain in his heart, concluding that you get what you pay for.

Not paying much attention, he immediately pointed to the maid clothing on the table, which looked like a half-sleeve skirt, and said:

"Put on the clothes and follow me."

"Yes, Master."...

"Clean them up. Do not leave any corpse parts, bloodstains, or odors."

"Yes, Master."

Following this conversation, he saw Hongdou, who had already put on the clothes and looked like a truly pretty young girl, quickly walk out from behind Li Yu.

She strode into the small dark room, picked up the corpses of Jiao Qing and Sun Sanniang with both hands, and went directly to the open space in the courtyard.

After stacking them together, the young girl's voice sounded again:

"Initiating corpse cremation function!"

"Boom!"

With almost no warning, Li Yu, as the master, only saw a red light suddenly erupt from Hongdou's abdomen, traveling all the way up, and then he saw a large mass of flames flickering with eerie blue light and sticking to some kind of liquid spray from her mouth, landing directly on the two corpses.

An eerie scene immediately appeared.

Normally, even if burning a corpse with a fierce fire, it would take a long time.

But the two corpses that touched the ghostly blue liquid fire were quickly burned through, becoming crisp and crumbling. After dozens of breaths, they even began to vaporize, turning into streams of visible blue-black mist that drifted toward the sky.

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When the last wisp of corpse mist dissipated and the flames ceased, no corpses could be seen in the courtyard anymore, leaving only a gray-white mark that was neither too large nor too small, which could be directly covered by turning the soil.

"Good!"

Others might find it terrifying, but Li Yu, as the master, couldn't help but applaud.

Previously, he had been worrying about how to deal with these disgusting and troublesome "legacies" left by the original couple, but now he had a solution.

Who could have imagined?

This pretty and beautiful maid doll, who looked like a fox-like girl, was actually a top-tier crematorium.

Just this function alone made Li Yu feel very satisfied.

"That Yun Dongjun must be a person who habitually kills people, steals their goods, and destroys the evidence."

"Otherwise, why develop such a perverted corpse-burning function?"

While complaining about the maid's creator, Li Yu did not delay in the slightest; he took the key and walked toward the storage room that had once caused him no small amount of psychological trauma.

Before unlocking the door, he turned his head to instruct Hongdou:

"Once I open the door, you are to burn all the filthy flesh and toxic food inside until it is completely gone."

After finishing, as if he had thought of something, he added:

"If there is anything like an extraordinary wonder, you may keep it temporarily for me to handle."

He added this because a memory had surfaced in Li Yu's mind.

As devout believers of the Forbidden God Sect, Jiao Qing and Sun Sanniang had been able to come to Wanfu City in the first place because they had obtained some inheritance from looting corpses.

Logically speaking, their legacy should still contain some strange objects used for rituals, evil god statues, and cultivation manuals.

But Li Yu had only scavenged account books.

If his guess was correct, the remaining items should be in this storage room.

After confirming there were no omissions, Li Yu unlocked the door with swift hands; accompanied by a clanking sound, the iron chains wrapped in forbidden talismans fell away one after another, the door swung open, and the familiar disgusting situation was about to occur again.

However, this time, a young girl stepped past him and blocked Li Yu's path.

Before the terrifying storm of stench could sweep over, she opened her mouth first, and streams of ghostly blue liquid fire immediately ignited everything.

Including, even, the smell.

To prevent the sight inside the storage room from triggering the forbidden egg in his belly to revolt, Li Yu retreated immediately after unlocking the door, leaving Hongdou to step inside alone.

Because the storage room was completely airtight, the vapor from the incinerated evil objects could only be expelled through the doorway.

This time, he waited in the courtyard for over an hour.

Seeing the corpse mist gradually thin until it disappeared, he then slowly approached.

Just then, Hongdou, who had become dirty and covered in dust, walked out, still using that delicate young girl's mechanical voice:

"Master, the filthy flesh and toxic food have all been burned clean."

"And I have discovered one unknown evil god statue and one unknown cultivation manual."

"Warning! Warning!"

"The parasitic strange object inside the master's body appears to have a spiritual connection with this evil god; please handle it with caution, Master."

"Hongdou suggests activating the sales function to list this wonder on... Activation failed!"

Li Yu had originally been about to enter the storage room to inspect the two wonders.

But upon hearing this, he could not help but stop.

It was not out of concern for any unknown danger; in fact, he already understood the two wonders in the storage room from his memories.

What truly interested Li Yu were the fragments mentioned by this mechanical maid.

"It seems that although the Heavenly Craft Secret Core is gone, Hongdou still possesses a certain level of intelligence."

"And then there is the so-called sales function... It seems the Heavenly Craft Sect has an extremely convenient trading network?"

Li Yu speculated for a moment, then stepped past Hongdou and officially entered the storage room that his predecessor had also been immensely curious about.

This time, he no longer saw those toxic grains, rotten fruits, various mushy filthy flesh, or the human fragments that caused physical discomfort.

What met his eyes was an empty storage room.

Only at the far end remained a sacrificial table.

It was covered in various eerie yellow talismans and burning black incense, but there were no offerings; they must have all been processed by Hongdou.

In the center area sat an extremely eerie, mottled statue; it had no human shape at all, looking more like a twisted, deformed, and filthy lump of meat, embedded with scarlet, evil eyes.

A thick book was also placed in front of the sacrificial table.

It was unknown how many times it had been flipped through by generations of owners; it was greasy, filthy, and tattered.

In Li Yu's mind, memories related to these two items immediately surfaced:

"Forbidden God Statue."

"Because it was successively worshipped by multiple devout believers and soaked in forbidden obsessions and filthy flesh, it has transformed into an extraordinary strange object. If the prayer is correct, there is a chance to establish a spiritual connection with the [Forbidden God]."

"Possessing this object will result in being polluted by the Forbidden God's evil thoughts day and night; while gaining partial strange powers, one will also become increasingly insane."

"Jiao Qing and Sun Sanniang originally scavenged this item from the corpse of that believer and performed frequent rituals afterward, which allowed them to obtain various strange powers, escape the pursuit of the Haotian Sect, and enter Wanfu City."

"Forbidden God Ritual Manual."

"Records many rituals for worshipping the Forbidden God, as well as a list of sacrifices. The Forbidden God encourages believers to offer sacrifices to it and will grant corresponding rewards."

As Li Yu recalled this, his gaze could not help but fixate on the statue.

Abruptly, at this moment, the statue seemed to come alive.

It began to squirm and expand, splitting and multiplying; around it, patches of dark, ominous water vapor steamed, evil faint light emerged, and endless filth and forbidden demonic creatures surged out, only to be swallowed back by the massive, sea-like lump of meat, over and over again, in an endless cycle.

The ritual manual was also blown open by an evil wind from an unknown source, revealing page after page of various sacrificial methods.

A rustling whisper also drilled into Li Yu's ears along with the evil wind that carried a faint stench.

The first to come was, shockingly, the blurry, terrifying ballad he had heard when he first transmigrated.

This time, he heard it clearly.

(End of chapter)